Hey all, got a little bit of an annoyance with the Z4 - basically there is a rattle coming from both the drivers and passenger doors. This goes away if the doors are locked so I am guessing it's something in or around the latch mechanism. I was actually just going to code the doors to lock at a particular speed to get around this :roll: but obviously not a cure. Any ideas?
Rattling doors - FIXED!
- Thread starter ph001
- Start date
Fairly certain this will be the door lock pins rattling in their escutcheons. Mine drove me potty ! :x Unscrew the pins and wrap a few turns of black insulating tape around them. A bit of trial and error until they are snug but not binding when you lock/unlock the doors. Easy fix ! 
Had some more thoughts on this overnight. I think the little plastic outer clips (which the pins sit in) just pop out of the door trim much easier than the door lock pins come off. I'm going to remove the outer clips and glue a small rubber o-ring into each. Will take pics as I do it.
UPDATE - completely eliminated the door rattle over the weekend.
I used a door trim removal tool to prise the escutcheons up out of the door trim (they are pretty tough to get out and you will inevitable break one of the retaining lugs). Once out, you can see that the part has three small plastic internal prongs (I have marked with green dots) which are supposed to locate against the door pin to stop any rattle. One of mine only had one of these prongs left and on the other one all the prongs were weak and not really touching the door pin. I guess new escutcheons would sort for a while but the design is fundamentally a bit poor. (BMW part no.51417042868)
I cut off the internal prongs and added a thin slice of self adhesive velcro hoop material to the inside of each escutcheon. Then simply pop the escutcheons back into the door trim and you should get a lovely snug but relatively friction free fit against the pins. It didn't seem to matter that a retaining clip had broke off on extraction - they still snap in very positively. Rattling completely gone and totally invisible from the outside.
I used a door trim removal tool to prise the escutcheons up out of the door trim (they are pretty tough to get out and you will inevitable break one of the retaining lugs). Once out, you can see that the part has three small plastic internal prongs (I have marked with green dots) which are supposed to locate against the door pin to stop any rattle. One of mine only had one of these prongs left and on the other one all the prongs were weak and not really touching the door pin. I guess new escutcheons would sort for a while but the design is fundamentally a bit poor. (BMW part no.51417042868)
I cut off the internal prongs and added a thin slice of self adhesive velcro hoop material to the inside of each escutcheon. Then simply pop the escutcheons back into the door trim and you should get a lovely snug but relatively friction free fit against the pins. It didn't seem to matter that a retaining clip had broke off on extraction - they still snap in very positively. Rattling completely gone and totally invisible from the outside.